books i was supposed to read this summer and didn't: the world history textbook i'll be teaching from next year. oops. yes, that's right: i'm teaching world history for the first time - asia, africa, europe, the americas, australia...from 1400 to the present. this makes me nervous, because when i taught US history it from was 1600 to the present...for one country. while i'll have no problem finding content to cover this year, i'm nervous about deciding WHAT content is worth spending our time on. and, you know, i'm not exactly an expert on world history. eek.
instead of reading that textbook, i read these books this month! i'm excellent at avoiding work i don't want to do...
the college admissions mystique, by bill mayher (because i'm going to be a college counselor in my new job! this book was the assigned reading for the college admissions "bootcamp" i'm currently attending in connecticut, and i actually really enjoyed this book. see! i did do SOME required reading this summer! i don't imagine many of my blog readers are going to college themselves soon or have a child about to apply to college, but if you know anyone who does, this book is a great overview of the process. a little dated - he talks about getting applications on CD-ROM from different universities and filling them out on your computer. woah. but some things, of course, don't change.)
a visit from the goon squad, by jennifer egan (i was going to start out this little review by saying that this book had too many characters and i couldn't figure out who anyone was or how they knew each other and it was very confusing. but no: i am not going to blame my brain for not keeping these characters straight. i read all the game of thrones books and they have a majillion characters and i have no trouble organizing them in my mind. i am going to blame this author for very little character development...i didn't care about these people or their lives or how they were connected. and who the hell is the goon squad? and why do we change time periods so much? and why does the future suck so badly? i almost gave up on this one several times, but stuck it out...and you know what, i can't recommend that you do that. so there. whew. feels good to get that off my chest. i'm interested, though: have any of you out there read this? any positive reactions?)
code name verity, by elizabeth wein (this was my book club's pick this month, a young adult novel about two british girls - a pilot and a spy - who are stuck in occupied france during world war 2. it had a great story line, but the book is written as journal entries, which i think rarely works perfectly to tell a story. while reading this book i often thought that there was NO WAY that someone would write such-and-such in her diary...but the author had to have them do that to explain a character or advance the plot or something. that annoyance aside, a good read!)
a history of the world in 6 glasses, by tom standage (this is the summer reading book that rising 10th graders at my new school read before taking world history, so again: i did SOME work this summer! the premise of the book is that you can tell the story of world history through six drinks that affected society: beer in mesopotamia, wine in the mediterranean, spirits in the british colonies, coffee in england, tea in china and the british colonies, and coca-cola in america and then around the world. interesting premise, cool information...slightly bizarre that we assign a book that is 50% about alcohol to 15 year olds, but whatever. history nerds among you might enjoy this one!)
the yonahlossee riding camp for girls, by anton disclafani (this is a new-ish book that was getting a lot of positive press, so i got it from the library. it takes place in 1930 in blowing rock, nc - near where i grew up! - which i didn't know when i got the book but made me like it even more. the main character gets sent to boarding school because of some mysterious wrong that she committed at home, which the author doesn't illuminate until 2/3 of the way through the book. i keep thinking that this wrong was going to be minor and i was going to be pissed that it took so long for the author to tell me about it, but it turned out to be worth the suspense and a good book overall. a quick read, too, but well-written. i'd definitely recommend it!)
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